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Special Abilities
Units in Dominions 4 can have a wide variety of special abilities. In fact, there are over 200 such abilities in the game. Each modifies the unit’s attributes or capabilities in some way. A mouse-over or right-click on the ability in the stats screen will give an explanation of what it does. Some of these attributes bear further explanation, which can be found on their own pages. Non-Combat * Castle Defence Bonus: Unit gains a bonus to their repair strength equal to the value when defending a besieged castle. * Siege Bonus: Unit gains a bonus to their siege strength equal to the value when attacking a besieged castle. * Patrol Bonus:Unit gains a bonus to their patrol strength equal to the value when patrolling. * Supply Bonus: Unit produces extra supplies for the army. A negative number means it consumes more. * Horror Mark: A horror mark is a condition which can lead to dire results. A horror mark will result in a small chance each month that a unit will be attacked by a Horror. A unit can be horror-marked more than once which will increase this chance, but there is no way of knowing how bad the mark is. Certain spells will cause a horror-marked unit to be attacked. In battle Horrors always attacked a horrormarked unit first. Stronger horror marks also attract stronger Horrors. Healing and Disease * Recuperation: This unit can heal its battle afflictions over time, unless it has the Old Age icon. * Healer: This unit automatically removes afflictions from other units in the same province * Disease Healer: This unit automatically removes Disease from other units in the same province. Stealth * Stealthy: Stealthy troops can pass undetected in enemy lands. The value is an estimate of the number of patrollers that must be present to have a 50% chance of detecting the enemy unit. If a stealthy unit's Stealth value is below 50, the effective stealth value of the leader is reduced by 1. * Seduction: Some units can seduce and make enemy commanders of the opposite gender switch sides. Note the seduced commander must have an available province to go to. Some may move the commander back to its home province. Failure can result in an assassination attempt. * Assassin: ': This unit can assassinate enemy commanders in the same province. The value indicates a patience bonus; if positive there is an increased chance of bodyguards not being present when the assassination occurs. An assassination fight is a fight between the assassin, the target, and any available bodyguards, where the target cannot be scripted. * '''Scale Walls: ': This unit can enter and exit hostile castles even when they are completely closed during sieges. This ability lets you perform assassination, seduction, and other similar attempts on sieged castles. Mobility * '''Sailing: Can cross (but not end the turn in) water provinces when moving. Sailing comes with a max size points commander can transport (usually 999), and a max size per unit (usually 2 or 3). * Flying:: Can fly, but not in a Storm unless it is also Storm Immune. Flying units can cross rivers and mountain passes if it is not cold in the provinces the pass connects. Flying units treat all provinces as movement cost 1, may fly over intervening enemy provinces. Flying units instantly leap around a battlefield, are very efficient at patrolling your lands with 30 effective action points. Flying units are also effective at castle sieges, gaining a +1 bonus to their effective strength. * Storm Immunity: This unit can fly even during Storms. * Teleporting: This unit may teleport, moving to any province within range regardless of intervening terrain, enemies, or seas. They can also generally perform Fly orders during combat. Damage Reduction * Slash Resistance: Received Slash damage is halved. * Pierce Resistance: Received Pierce damage is halved. * Blunt Resistance: Received Blunt damage is halved. * Ice Protection: Protection varies with the temperature scales in the province. The protection value is added or subtracted for every step in the Cold scale. * Invulnerable: Grants natural protection equal to value that is applied versus normal weapons. * Ethereal: Very difficult to hit with non-magical weapons. 75% of such strikes will miss. Combat Auras * Awe: Units with Awe force enemies to take a morale check against 10 + Awe in order to be able to attack them. Thus, a unit with Awe +4 would force attackers to pass a morale check against 14, or be awestruck and unable to attack the awe-inspiring monster on that combat round. Awe does not apply to ranged attacks. * Fear: Units in a monster’s Fear area of effect get their morale temporarily lowered and their entire squad must take a morale check against the monster’s Fear, or rout. The basic Fear effect requires a check against 10. Unlike Awe, the bonus to Fear indicates the additional area of effect, not the Fear strength. So a Fear +4 monster has normal Fear that radiates to 4 additional squares. The Fear strength itself is increased for every full +5 Fear, so a Fear +10 unit would radiate to ten additional squares, and force a morale check against 12. The base area of effect (Fear +0) is 6 squares. * Heat: Units with this ability radiate heat into adjacent squares. You will see this as little black smoke. This causes 5 armor-negating points of stun damage. It is considered fire damage, so units with fire resistance have protection. A fire resistance of 5 or greater negates the effects of a heat aura. The default size of a heat aura is 3 squares and is increased by Fire magic. Some monsters may have a greater heat aura, which has a larger area of effect. * Chill: This is exactly the same as Heat, except the stun damage is cold, and thus units with cold resistance have protection. It looks like bluish-white smoke. The default size of a chill aura is 3 squares and is increased by Water magic. * Poison Cloud: This is the green smoke. Each turn the area of effect is blasted by poison, and anyone in this area takes 2 points of armor-negating poison damage. This effect actually lasts for two turns, so a single unit can take multiple poison damage effects from a single source. Heat, Chill, and Poison Cloud effects stack, so if a unit is in a square where three Abysians are radiating heat, that unit will take damage from each. Other Combat Abilities * Ambidextrous: It reduces the penalty for wielding two weapons by an amount equal to the Ambidextrous level. * Berserker: A unit with this ability goes berserk when wounded if it passes a morale check vs. 12. Berserk units fight until dead – they do not rout. The number associated with the Berserker ability is a bonus to berserk attributes. * Petrification: This is the Medusa's special ability. Anyone attacking her is killed if the attacker fails a magic resistance roll. * Glamour: These units gain Mirror Image in combat, and are undetectable in friendly provinces. This is a defining feature of Elves. If they possess the Stealthy benefit, it is also boosted by 25. * Standard: The standard ability increases the morale of the entire squad it is in. Only the best standard for every squad will have a morale increasing effect. * Trample: Trample is exactly what it sounds like – a large unit runs over a smaller one. Smush! A trampling unit displaces all of the units in the square it enters to an adjacent square. These units have to take a Defense – (fatigue / 10) check against 10. If they fail this check, they take 8 + 2xSize trample damage. This is an armor-piercing attack, so Protection is halved. A trampled unit will always take at least one point of damage, regardless of Protection. A unit which successfully passes the defense check is still displaced, but just takes one point of damage, total. * Swallow: Some monsters are able to swallow the target of a successful trampling attack. The swallowed monsters are removed from the battlefield until the swallowing monster is killed. Some monsters are able to digest swallowed targets, which does damage to the swallowed target each turn, and some monsters can even incorporate the swallowed target into their own bodies and get extra hit points from the damage they do to swallowed creatures. Unit Classes Some special ability divide units into classes. The classes may have special requirements for leadership. * Magic Being: These units require a mage to lead them. They rout if left without magical leadership. * Mindless: Mindless beings suffer mindless dissolution on the battlefield if left without a commander. Mindless units cannot be in the same squad as non-mindless units. They all have very high morale. * Undead: Undead units are subject to banishment. They do not required supplies, and they are not affected by disease or old age. Undead units require Undead/Demon leadership to lead. Undead leadership is granted by Death Magic (at 30/level), Blood Magic (at 5/level) or by being undead. A squad that mixes undead and non-undead gets a -1 morale penalty. * Demon:: Demons are subject to banishment. They are not affected by spells that only target Undead such as Wither Bones. All demons have perfect vision. Demons require Undead/Demon leadership to lead, which is granted by Death magic (at 30/level) and Blood Magic (at 5/level) Category:Special Abilities